USA > Pennsylvania > Tioga County > History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations, portraits and sketches of prominent families and individuals > Part 59
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PIONEER FAMILIES OF TIOGA.
Uncle John's place, consisting of the present Berry es- Titus Ives about 1826 or IS27 lived in a plank house tate, extending from Berry street to the Crooked Creek below Crooked Creek ford. ford, he lost by litigation with Uriah Spencer; in what THE CARTERS AND STILESES .- The exact time of the
way the writer does not know, unless his claim was pur- settlement of Mr. Carter and his son William, Job chased from "under him " by Spencer from the agent of Squires, Asa Stiles and a Mr. Reed is not known, but the Pennsylvania Bank. Timothy also lost his property, they were here in 1794 or 1795. Carter and his son a farm of 233 acres, through Uriah Spencer in a similar | lived on the narrow flat above Big Hill, Job Squires
way, sold at sheriff's sale, February 13th 1826; this was the occasion of unsettling his mind and incapacitating him for business. He often wandered away from home, and the writer remembers seeing him once, dressed very much in the style or fashion of Barnaby Rudge, in the days of the Gorton riots, as described by Charles Dick- ens, very carefully pacing out and surveying. with a long staff in his hand, the land his uncle formerly owned, and placing here and there corner stones. Com- ing at length to the old frame school-house, at the bend of the road leading to the river, he put the entire school into sudden disorder and commotion by attempting with his staff to push off loose papers that had been pasted over some of the broken window panes. David Betts was then the teacher, and to calm the school he was obliged to step out and divert the poor man away. The family subsequently moved to Coudersport, Potter county, where Timothy finally became sane, and lived to quite an advanced age. Judge Timothy Ives jr. of that county-and also treasurer of it in 1825 and 1826-a man highly esteemed and respected, was his son. A similar calamity in the end befell Uriah Spencer, occa- sioned by the loss of property, to that which was
Titus Ives also moved to Potter county. Benajah was the father of Deborah, John, Michael, Lucinda, Barna- bas, Benajah jr., Sally, Caroline and Thomas; and his wife was Lucy Cady, of Bristol, Conn. Benajah died July 3d 1841, at Keeneyville, aged 72 years, and was there buried beside his wife. Barnabas, the son, died in 1861, and was buried in Mill Creek cemetery. John, the husband of Betsey Kiphart (who is still living, aged over 97 years), died in April 1866, over 70 years of age. Caroline, the widow of John Farr, is the only descendant of the Iveses now living in the township, and she is the mother of Mrs. Lydia Ann Dimick, and of sons Lafayette and Albert. There was a son of Uncle John, called "John Ding"; the nephew was styled "Winking John," and the son of Benajah "Pork John." They were known so commonly by these appellations that they are here given. It may be mentioned, also, that Benajah Ives sen. is said to have come to Tioga a year earlier than his brother, and stopped one year on the Elliott Flats before moving on to the Berry place. In 1826 and 1827 he was partner with Levi Vail in trade, and he was a justice of the peace in Lawrence township. Timothy Ives was county commissioner from 1812 to 1815, at a very im- portant time in the early organization of the county.
below the Adams place, Asa Stiles on the Van Camp place, and Mr. Reed on the Elliott place. All these persons except Asa Stiles seem to have had but a tem- porary residence, for they are soon lost sight of, and their places not long after were occupied by others. Asa Stiles is thought to have been the father of Elijah Stiles. The latter was elected sheriff in 1821, and county commissioner in 1826; was a merchant in 1825 and 1826, at Tioga, in partnership with Chris. Charles, son-in-law of Asa Mann; and occupied the "old red store " built by William Willard jr. On the election of Elijah as county commissioner the firm of Stiles & Charles seems to have been discontinued, and they were succeeded by Vail, Ives & Co. in February or March 1827. Stiles was a bachelor, and after his three years' service as commis- sioner he soon disappeared from Tioga.
THE ADAMS FAMILY .- Rufus Adams, who was the father of Isaac and Peter Adams, sold a portion of his claim to Benjamin Bentley, reserving part on the north which was occupied by Isaac and Peter up to at least 1830, when Isaac sold to Samuel Westbrook. Peter married a Keeney, and Isaac, it is believed, married a Stevens or a Miss Porter, sister of John Porter, who com-
suffered by his victim Timothy. A small run in the bined the anomalous trades of blacksmithing and den- southwest part of the township, emptying into Crooked Creek within the limits of Middlebury, is known as the " Tim Ives Run, " in honor of Timothy above spoken of.
tistry, and was in business in the former, in copartner- ship with James Daniels, in a shop on the ground of the H. E. Smith dwelling, about 1827. Isaac Adams, it is be- lieved, manufactured the first brick in the township, and he was also a tanner. In 1825 he was administrator for the estate of Michael Smith. Rufus, the father, died here, and was buried in the " Bentley cemetery." Peter jr. removed about 1830 to Michigan.
JACOB KIPHART the elder and his family moved from Lycoming Creek, a mile and a half above Williamsport, or " Jimmy Thompson's Tavern," by way of the William- son road, either the first or second year after its con- struction, placing the time at 1794 or 1795, and settled on what has ever since been known as the "Kiphart place," lying below the mouth of Crooked Creek, and along the west bank of the river. Jacob the younger, now in his to3d year, says he was born at Pine Grove, Berks county, Pa., and when he was five years old his father and family removed to Buffalo Valley, Northum- berland county; thence, after three or four years, to Ly- coming Creek, and finally to Tioga. His birthday, ac- cording to his reckoning, was the 20th of November 1779; and his sister Betsey, who claims that her age was 97 years the 25th day of April last, says there was six years' difference in their ages, and that the family had moved from Pine Creek to Buffalo Creek before her birth. There is a correspondence of statement here that makes it seem probable they are correct in their statements as
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
to age. The father built a log house, about two rods from the river bank, at the place above mentioned. Three apple trees, which the father and son planted a little west of the house, are still standing, and appear to be vigorous, and likely to remain a long time to come.
Jacob, the son, built a very good frame and clipboard house a little after the commencement of the present century, on the west side of the main road, due west from the log house of his father, and in front of it he planted two Lombardy poplars, one of which is still standing. The house has been gone twenty years or more. Jacob Kiphart the elder, as the son says, "was a raw Dutchman of Pennsylvania stock;" and the mother, as the daughter Betsey informs us, was Anna Maria Grove. She was an accoucheuse, and at that early period, with no local physicians at Tioga, her services were very useful and often required. Captain Baldwin says she served in that capacity in his father's family, though their residence was near Lawrenceville. The father of Jacob died about 1813 and the mother 1815, and both are bur- ied in the " Berry burying ground." Mrs. Kiphart was present at Nathan Daily's birth, March 19th 1815.
Jacob Kiphart jr. married Huldah Bryant, who is still living, though at the age of 82 years, the 14th of September last. Of the sisters of Jacob, Betsey married John Ives- "Pork John "-who was her third husband, her first one being a Blanchard. Polly married a Crippin, who was drowned in the river below the village, and she subse- quently married an Abbott. Jacob continued to live at Tioga up to about 1838 or 1840, when he removed to Middlebury township. He had children Mary, Richard, Maria, Jacob, Elizabeth, Sarah, Andrew and Clara. On the 22nd of April 1882 the writer made a special journey to find somewhere in Covington township the father and mother's place of residence with the last named daughter, Mrs. Clara Frost. He found them living in a new and very comfortable dwelling, built on a bench of land some twenty feet above the road and to the west of it, near to the ruins of the burned brewery, a mile north of Bloss- burg village. He found the aged couple sitting by a comfortable parlor stove, in a carpeted, tidy, pleasant room, and though he had not seen Jacob for at least 35 years he readily recognized him both by figure and voice. Though much bowed and bent over, yet there was a roundness and fullness of body and a glow of counte- nance that seemed to indicate considerable vitality of system and the possibility of his living yet quite a num- ber of years. His hearing was excellent, but his eyesight dim; his memory was quite clear for so aged a man. He talked about the old inhabitants of Tioga with much ap- parent distinctness and vividness of recollection, as though it was but a few years ago that he was there. His wife, Huldah, though twenty years his junior, Mrs. Frost said, is much feebler in health than he.
As we have the definite time of settlement, or approxi- mately so, of persons who preceded and followed the coming of Jacob Kiphart and family; and the present Jacob's and his sister Betsey's statements as to the time ·of their own coming, and as to who were here and who
not here when they came, agreeing with fixed facts derived from other sources, confirm not only the date of their own settlement, but fix that of others with less doubt. These two persons are the only ones living who were settled in Tioga township prior to the commence- ment of the present century. Mrs. Ambrose Millard, of Elmira, John Daily and Mrs. Augustus Niles, born before this century, and still living in the township, came after the year 1800. Lorain Lamb, still living, aged nearly 97 years, was settled in our valley in 1797, when it was both Lycoming township and county; but he has been a cit- izen of Covington and Richmond townships since 1813. Mrs. Betsey Ives, or "Aunt Betsey," as she is usually called, is at present living three miles from Wellsboro, in the kind and hospitable charge of Orrin Bly.
THOMAS BERRY AND FAMILY, who settled at the well known Berry farm, on the west side of the river, near the old ford, which is now spanned by the "red bridge," came in 1796, on his way to the Genesee country; but stopping over night with Benjamin Ives, who kept the place as a wayside inn, Mr. Berry bartered with him for his possessions and purchased the one-half or upper part including the inn, Mr. Ives moving on to a part of the land formerly occupied by Jesse Losey. He came from the State of Maryland, near the Delaware line, in the spring. The year is definitely fixed by the birth of his daughter Rachel, who was born in June 1797, one year after his settlement, and was accompanied by James Jennings, a brother of Mrs. Berry. He moved his family, consisting of Mrs. Berry and four children- Mary, John, Margaret and Hester-in an old lumber wagon drawn by four horses, driving along at the same time four cows, eight sheep and two hogs, and came by the way of Williamsport. With his household effects he brought a large corner clock and a chest of drawers, both of cherry wood, and a large walnut chest, said to have been brought from Scotland by the grandmother on the Jennings' side, all three of which are in possession of John D. Berry, at the old homestead. Thomas Berry's father was a Revolutionary soldier, and of Irish de- scent. The mother's family name was Coe; and Mrs. John D. Berry has the interesting relic of a china cup brought from Ireland by this great-grandmother; also coverlets and quilts brought from Maryland by grand- mother Rachel Berry. Thomas Berry's original purchase of land was 80 acres of flat land and 140 of hill.
At the Thomas Berry house was established the first election precinct in the county, by act of Legislature of the 3d of March 1804, the township of Tioga then in- cluded the whole county. He died April 17th 1807, in his 45th year; but his widow continued to manage the es- tate with ability, and kept the house as an inn up to about 1835 or 1838. The present mansion house was built by her in 1824. Thomas J. Berry, the son, built about 1840 the fine mansion below the village, which was then con- sidered one of the finest dwellings in the county, and is still a very substantial and imposing structure.
Rachel, the widow, died March 8th 1850, in her 83d year; Mary, wife of Samuel Westbrook, died April 22nd
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PIONEERS IN TIOGA.
1847, in her 58th year; Rachael, wife of John Sly, died He seems to have been an industrious man, for at the time of his death, which occurred about 1812, he had cleared a considerable breadth of land, and had quite a number of horses. He died at the house of Jacob Pruts- man, who appears to have been his chief earthly friend, and in this last extremity his good Samaritan, for which September 14th 1855, in her 59th year; John, a bachelor, died July 20th 1860, in his 67th year: Thomas J. Berry (whose wife was a Miller) died March 6th 1863, in his 58th year; Judith died unmarried, May 21st 1873, in her 75th year; Hester, Margaret, and Thomas Ist died in 1803-7, the girls aged 15 and 19 years, and the boy not he was rewarded by the gift of all of his possessions. two months old.
Thomas J. Berry's son of the same name died some three years since, leaving a widow and two sons, who" may have been once those of the maiden name of his
live on the estate left by the grandfather; the names of the sons being James and Frank, and their ages respect- ively about 15 and 17 years. The mother is the daugh- ter of James G. Messereau, formerly of Lindley, N. Y.
JAMES AND ISAIAH JENNINGS .- James Jennings, who came to Tioga with the Berry family, went on to the Genesee country. Isaiah Jennings, who came at a later period, was shot and killed by John Wilson, a short dis- tance from the front door of the latter's house, which stood about intermediate between the present residence of Obadiah Inscho and the little run south of it, in Law- rence township. Wilson had been engaged in a stabbing affair, and a warrant had been procured of Esquire Al- bottom is engraved with the half figure of a woman, be- len, some four or five miles distant from Troy, a magis- neath which is a coat of arms of the royal house of Great Britain, with the inscription below: " Anna Van Bronswij Kluenburg Kroon Priensces Van Groot Bretanic." trate for the county of Lycoming, and Jennings was deputized to make the arrest. For shooting Jennings Wilson was arrested and conveyed to the Williamsport jail, where he was in due time tried and acquitted; mainly, it was said, on suborned testimony chiefly that of Dennis Hawes, who received the gift of a horse), and the fact that defendant was not seen to fire the shot.
SAMUEL YOUNGMAN, born April 4th 1811, and his sister Emeline, born March 23d 1813, both in the house where lived the mother, standing on the Berry farm above the river ford, were adopted by Mrs. Rachael Berry into her family. The mother of these children married an Ives, and moved to Coudersport, Potter county. Samuel, the son, married Mercy Bentley, and moved to Royal Oak, Michigan, and there had two chil- dren; the sister, Emeline, went with her mother to Cou- dersport, and there died of consumption.
The initials on his teaspoons were "P. S .; " but this would not indicate that his name was assumed, for they mother, a married sister, or even of a wife. Among other relics left by him is a singular spectacle case of large size, six inches long by two broad and one and three- eighths deep, which the writer some ten years since ob- tained from one of the members of the Prutsman family. The top and bottom of it are of brass and the sides cop- per, the latter engraved in imitation of fern leaves, The top, or lid, bears the half figure of a man, with a coat of arms underneath quartered in nine parts, as is common to German heraldty, with the following inscription below: " Willem Carel Hendrik fries a Prins Van .. . ..... en Nassau ers Stathoeder Van De 7 Provenci: 1847." The
URIAH SPENCER, it is probable, was here in 1797, though perhaps not until the following year. He was born in Salisbury, Conn., and married a Miss Deborah Elliott, of Guilford, Conn., who was first cousin to John Elliott of Kent; both of them were lineal descendants in the fourth degree from John Elliott of Indian missionary fame. Mr. Spencer bought a township of land of the Hon. James Hillhouse, of New Haven, Conn., under the Connecticut title, and came to Lawrenceville first without his family. Finding the lands already entered by Penn- sylvania purchasers, he took no steps to enforce his title, at least at that time, but returned to Connecticut, and brought on his wife and probably three children then born. He was settled for a while in Lawrenceville; subsequently on the Elliott farm, on the . old road at the foot of the hill, and finally on a part of the present Berry estate, building a house on the west side of the road, a short
GEORGE PREKAY, a German, or more probably a Flem- ish Hollander, a very singular and eccentric man, was here possibly about the same time with the Berry family, distance below the present driving park. He was a black- and settled on the west side of the river below the claim smith by trade, and at one time occupied a log shop, of Jacob Kiphart, and on the southern end of the Cro- zier tract. He lived in a rude hut of the simplest con- struction, built on the east bank of Bear Creek, and op- posite the maple grove on O. B. Lowell's land; and apart from it on a dry knoll he had a cave, in which he slept and kept his most valuable effects. He had table silver- ware, and wore silver knee-buckles. He both spoke and read the English and German tongues, was intelligent, and had much the air of an educated and refined man. To Jacob Prutsman, who subsequently became his near- place, and was then married to Eleanor Boher, whose est neighbor on the north, and also spoke and read the English and German languages, he became an interest- ing associate, but would never tell to him his parentage or place of birth, or the secret of his life if he had any. probably the first one of the kind in Tioga, where now is the front yard of the A. C. Bush mansion. He very early erected a saw-mill on a race running from below the Cowanesque road bridge, in the rear of the driving park, and emptying into the river above the mouth of Crooked Creek. In 1812 Elijah Welsh was his sawyer. His first wife died in November 1802, aged 33 years and seven months, and was buried in the Lawrenceville cemetery. In 1804 he was living on the John Elliott mother occupied the De Pui place, further up the river. His first wife's children were Fanny, Nancy, Horace and Charles-the first three born in Connecticut, and Charles here. His second wife's children were George Polly
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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
and Harriet. Fanny married Levi Vail; Nancy, John Main; Horace, an Alford; Charles, Charlotte Bliss; George, a lady of Georgetown, D. C .; and Polly, Elijah Welsh. Horace in 1833 was a justice of the peace, but moved about 1838 to Erie county, Pa. Charles died about 1840, aged 40 years, and left a widow, who is still living (now the wife of Heber Cole), and children Wil- bur, James, Mary, Isabel, Eleanor, George, Thomas and Benjamin.
At the establishment of the post-office at Tioga, Janu- ary Ist 1805, Uriah Spencer was appointed its post- master, and he continued so until July Ist 1809, when he was succeeded by Dr. William Willard. He was again appointed in 1834. The Tioga office was the first established in the county, that of Wells- boro not being opened until July Ist 1808. Spencer was one of the commissioners of the county at its organization; was prothonotary from 1818 to 1821, and again from 1824 to 1830, in all nine years; and from 1824 to 1830 was also register and recorder. His influ- ence probably secured the appointment of his son-in-law, Levi Vail, as county treasurer for the years 1826 and 1827. On Saturday the ist day of July 1826, at a con- vention held at the house of James Goodrich, " Willards- burg," Uriah Spencer received the endorsement of the county delegates for representative in Congress for the 9th district, and John Ryon jr. and Asa Mann were chosen his conferrees. At the conference held at Penns- borough, Lycoming county, September 19th following, he failed to secure the nomination. He was one of the com- mittee chosen in 1826 to draft an address to the governor of New York in furtherance of a canal from the head of Seneca lake to the Pennsylvania line, to be continued thence by Pennsylvania authority to the coal mines at Blossburg. He and Samuel W. Morris were chosen a committee to present a petition to the Legislature of New York State, and Mr. Spencer visited Albany for that purpose in the month of February 1827. He was also one of the original corporators of the Tioga Naviga- tion Company. He seems to have been one of the most influential citizens of the county up to 1833 or 1835. He subsequently lost his property and his influence. His son George held a clerkship in the general post-office at Washington, D. C., and somewhere between 1835 and 1840 the father and mother visited and remained with him for some time; but when they returned to Tioga it was seen that Mr. Spencer's mind was unsettled, espec- ially whenever any of his original properties were spoken of. Ordinarily his conversation was calm, clear and in- telligent and of an interesting character; for he possessed a large fund of information, obtained by long experience and general reading, and had a happy faculty of impart- ing it to others. It was said he could also speak well; and in a law suit between him and Jacob Prutsman, about the year 1833, in regard to the rights of a mill priv- ilege, he pleaded his own case with great ability. Though not a church member he was a very regular attendant at church, and usually went with cane in hand and cushion under his arm, really filling one's idea of an old school
gentleman. He would sometimes remark in a jocular way, " They say I look very much like General Jackson." It is probable he did; he certainly admired him very much, and had a personal acquaintance with him. He was tall, sparely built, of graceful movements, and with features rather thin. Mr. Spencer was arrested, some time near the year 1800, in a matter growing out of his Connecticut title, and conveyed to Williamsport or Penns- borough, and there confined in jail in company with a Mr. Spalding. Mr. Cummings was then sheriff, and the two were only locked up nights, having the freedom of the building during the day. One evening they had sat up late, and when time for bed had come the sheriff said to them: "Go down and lock yourselves in; 1 am not going down stairs to-night, and if you want to run away, run away!" They went down to their cell, and took no pains to lock themselves in, nor did they run away.
From about 1840 to 1845 he and his wife occupied their old village homestead, on Wellsboro street, in which Jacob Schiefflein jr. resided up to its burning down, in 1880. Spencer subsequently went to his son George's, at Georgetown, D. C., where he died about 1850, aged 80 years, and was there buried. His wife, Eleanor, went to Mainsburg, and there died about 1852, probably aged 75 years. Mrs. Boher, the mother of Eleanor Spencer, died somewhere subsequent to the year 1825, and was buried in the Berry burying ground.
NATHAN NILES'S settlement is placed here in 1797, from the fact that his fourth son, Augustus Niles, born the 18th of January 1792, was but five years of age when his father came; and he came from Hartford, Connect- icut, bringing with him a Connecticut title, as all who came from the east at that early period had done pre- viously, and did for several years subsequently. The location selected for his house is the very place where his son-in law, John Daily, resides to-day. It was a log house like all the others at that period, as no saw-mills were yet erected, and lumber could only be obtained from a distance. His settlement was made on the most southern of the Bartholomew and Patton tracts, includ- ing the mouth of Mill Creek, and his title, like that of many others, came through the Pennsylvania Bank. At Hartford he had been a merchant, but, his business prov- ing unsuccessful, he sought that of the pioneer and farmer. His father was a physician, and also at times performed the duties of a local preacher of the Presby- terian persuasion. His wife was Irena Russell, and his children were Nathan, Aaron, Erastus, Augustus, Rod- ney, Irena, Clarissa, Violetta and Temperance. The first three sons moved into Delmar and Middlebury, and Rodney into Rutland. Augustus, born February 6th 1792, married Anna Adams, and remained in this town- ship until his death. He died October 27th 1841, in his fiftieth year, leaving two sons, Augustus Edwin and By- ron, and a daughter Julia, widow of Charles Miller. Of the daughters of Nathan Niles sen. Irena married Major William Rathbone; Clarissa, Orrin Beecher; Violetta, John Daily; Temperance, Timothy Brace.
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